Reflections on Life and Death

the greatest cause for a person’s insensitivity. To realize the utter seriousness of death, we need to come out of our conditioning. We need to move beyond our familiar ways of thinking. Only then can we understand the reality of death, which is the most serious thing that is bound to happen with every single one of us, some day or the other.

The Pleasures of This World T he Quran (3:185) says: Every human being is bound to taste death. Man lives amidst innumerable ‘tastes’ of this world, but the ‘taste’ that is finally destined for him is the ‘taste’ of death. The taste of death is so bitter that it destroys all other tastes. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have advised: “Remember death much because it demolishes all desires.” Man is a pleasure-seeking being. He derives pleasure in all sorts of things—in eating, in drinking, in wearing good clothes, in living in a good house, in travelling in a good car, in good entertainment, in occupying good positions of fame and power. And so on. From all these sorts of things people derive immense pleasure. They get lost in wallowing in them. But if they were to realize that as soon as their death arrives all these pleasures